Five startup fundings show where AI and defense money is moving

Venture funding is pointing at a wider set of problems for artificial intelligence and defense tech, from booking a plumber to digging under battlefields. For everyday investors, these private-company rounds are not public stock calls, but they can show which markets venture firms think may reshape software, health care, financial services and military technology.

Crunchbase highlighted five recently announced startup financings that stood out across early-stage markets. The deals range from a $50 million seed round, usually the first institutional funding stage for a young company, to a $2 million pre-seed round for back-office financial tools.

Biology models draw a $50 million seed round

San Francisco-based Radical Numerics came out of stealth, meaning it had been building with limited public visibility, with a $50 million seed round led by Emergence Capital. Obvious Ventures, Triatomic Capital, Factory and First Spark Ventures also participated, and the company said Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison had backed it at the pre-seed stage.

Radical Numerics was founded by the team behind Evo, an AI model built to read and generate DNA sequences at scale. The company says it is working on “general biological intelligence,” using multimodal AI models, systems that process more than one type of data, across DNA, RNA, proteins and other biological information.

The company says those models could support drug discovery, cancer diagnostics and biosecurity. Radical Numerics also previewed Omnii, its next genome language model. CEO Eric Nguyen said in a company statement that biology could become AI’s most consequential application, while warning that tools useful for curing disease could also lower barriers to harmful biological design.

Home services software gets AI backing

New York-based Probook said it raised $40 million across two rounds: a $34 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $6 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital. Sequoia also joined the Series A. A Series A is typically an early growth round after seed funding.

Probook is building AI software for home service companies such as plumbers, electricians and HVAC contractors. The company says its platform focuses on dispatch, the process of matching jobs with available workers, and combines customer intake, scheduling, messaging and outbound communication.

Probook CEO and co-founder George Eliadis said in a company statement that the idea came from his own experience in a family pressure-washing business, where missed calls and driving time cut into the workday.

Defense startup targets underground warfare

Austin-based Traysar launched publicly with a $25 million seed round led by Silent Ventures. Lux Capital, Ora Global, Never Lift Ventures, Mana Ventures, Impatient Ventures and strategic angels including Steve Blank and founders from Anduril Industries and Erebor also participated.

Traysar describes itself as a “subterra” defense tech company. It says it is building autonomous underground systems that can tunnel, map subterranean networks, breach hardened infrastructure and carry payloads beneath the surface.

The company says underground military infrastructure is relevant in places including Iran, Gaza and Ukraine. Its founding team includes former engineers from SpaceX and The Boring Co. Crunchbase data shows defense-tech startups globally raised nearly $15.8 billion in the first half of 2026, the sector’s largest funding half-year on record.

Main Street growth tools and private-market operations

Pie, a New York startup founded by former Square and Toast executives, emerged from stealth with $23.7 million in funding, including a $19.5 million Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Capital One Ventures, SciFi VC, F-Prime, Commerce Ventures, Restive, Cambrian Ventures and Wex Venture Capital also joined.

Pie says it helps local businesses appear across AI search platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude, along with Google Maps, Facebook and Yelp. It also introduced Front Desk, an AI agent, meaning software that can act on a user’s behalf, to answer calls, book appointments and respond to customer questions.

Berlin-based Nomerra raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by 14Peaks Capital, with Redstone.VC and individuals from firms including KKR and Intapp participating. The company says private markets, investments in companies and funds that do not trade on public exchanges, still rely heavily on emails, PDFs and spreadsheets.

Nomerra says its AI agents connect with existing enterprise software, banking systems and document repositories to handle fund accounting, treasury operations and transfer agency work. The company says private markets are about $13 trillion today and could grow to more than $30 trillion in coming years.

This story draws on original reporting from Crunchbase News.